Legendary Punk Band Debris Calls It Quits

Debris emerged from Chickasha, a very unlikely spot for an experimental proto-art-punk band. Facing indifference and redneck hostility, Debris forged a small legacy with its D.I.Y. ethic and improvised playing style in only one year.

Charles Ivey and Oliver Powers played in bands like The Cocktails and Victoria Vein and the Thunderpunks for several years before the summer of 1975, when they approached drummer Johnny Gregg to start a new band. By September, Debris had the first of the four live gigs of their short existence.

Influenced by the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, Captain Beefheart, and English glam rock, their sound and chaotic live performances did not endear them to their Oklahoma City-area audiences. At one show, a Battle of the Bands competition where 50 bands competed for a new sound system, Debris came in dead last while a cover band took home the prize.

During two sessions at Benson Sound Studios in Oklahoma City in December 1975, Debris cut their only full length record. The band paid $1,590 for ten hours of recording time (only using six hours and 59 minutes) and a 1,000 LP pressing. That debut record, Static Disposal, was released in April 1976.

The band sent Static Disposal to record labels and rock magazines as a demo in hopes of getting a record deal. Seemingly ahead of their time, the band received early negative reviews and lacked local support, so they disbanded. Over the next year, favorable press flowed and even legendary New York music clubs CBGB and Max’s Kansas City offered them gigs, but it was already too late.

A couple years after Debris’ initial break-up, Ivey went to Los Angeles and was in the mix at an early L.A. punk club called the Masque.

In the years following the release of Static Disposal, it slowly became a legendary lost album over the next three decades and was highly prized by collectors. The album would be noted as inspiration for bands like Scream, Nurse With Wound (NWW) and the Melvins.

In 1999, Anopheles Records reissued Static Disposal on CD, complete with photos and extensive liner notes. The label would also release vinyl pressings in 2002 and 2008.

In 2005, Debris would reunite to play a show at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City. At the time of the reunion, original Debris members Chuck Ivey and Johnny Gregg were in a band briefly known as both Chuck Poison Ivey Ensemballs and 31 Stab Wounds with former members of Victoria Vein and the Thunderpunks Robb Hayes and C.R. Harrison.